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This quick and easy Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili is the perfect healthy weeknight dinner recipe! I love making a big batch of this flavorful, spicy sweet potato chili in my Instant Pot pressure cooker, not just for dinner, but also for meal prep lunches throughout the week. The combination of tender sweet potatoes, lean ground turkey, and a medley of spices creates a satisfying and nutritious meal that’s as convenient as it is delicious.
If you love a kick of heat, you’re going to adore this recipe! The blend of spices adds just the right amount of warmth and depth, but don’t worry if you prefer a milder dish—it’s easily adaptable. You can adjust the spice levels to suit your taste, making it a versatile option for the whole family.
This is the perfect easy weeknight meal that will have a healthy, hearty bowl of chili on the table in less than 30 minutes, thanks to the Instant Pot! The pressure cooker speeds up the cooking process and enhances the flavors, ensuring a rich and comforting dish every time.
This ground turkey chili recipe is one you’re going to want to keep in your weekly dinner rotation. It’s made with wholesome, healthy ingredients and is a breeze to prepare using only the Instant Pot. With minimal clean-up and maximum flavor, it’s an ideal choice for busy nights. Plus, the leftovers store beautifully, making it a great option for meal prepping. Whether you’re feeding a family or just looking for a nutritious, easy dinner, this Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili checks all the boxes!
Where’s the recipe?
Whether you’re a professional chef or a mom at home cooking for your family, here at My Crazy Good Life, we like to make our recipes easy for anyone to follow. This article has lots of helpful tips and information about the ingredients, cooking directions and nutrition.
If you’d like to skip past all of that, you can scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll find the easy to print Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili recipe!
Ingredients in Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili
- Ground turkey: Using lean ground turkey instead of ground beef lowers the fat and total calories in this recipe.
- Sweet potato: Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta carotene, vitamin C, and potassium. Sweet potatoes are also a pretty good source of other vitamins and minerals. Bonus: they taste delicious!
- Onion: I think onions are a necessary ingredient in a good chili recipe. Onion brings flavor, texture and a delicious aroma when cooking.
- Bell pepper: Bell peppers are low in calories and high in vitamins, especially vitamin C. Any variety of bell pepper will work in this sweet potato chili.
- Celery stalks: Celery is another nutritious vegetable in this chili. It’s a great source of vitamins A, K & C, as well as minerals like folate and potassium.
- Crushed tomatoes: Make sure to grab a can of crushed and not tomato sauce or tomato paste. You can also use fire roasted diced tomatoes if you’d like to add a little smokiness to this sweet potato chili.
- Black beans: Black beans is one of my favorite pantry staples. We always have a few cans on hand. I like using black beans for this recipe but feel free to use kidney beans, pinto beans, or white beans if that’s what you have on hand.
- Chicken stock: Buy a low sodium chicken stock or vegetable broth, or make your own chicken broth using this recipe.
Spices
- Garlic: Fresh garlic is superior to garlic powder. Always go for fresh garlic.
- Cumin: Cumin adds an earthy, warm flavor to chili recipes.
- Chipotle peppers: I use chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, which you can find in a small can in your grocery store’s Mexican food aisle. In a pinch you can use chipotle powder, but the canned peppers, with their adobo sauce, add such a delicious and smoky flavor to this sweet potato chili. Be warned that they are spicy so, if you are sensitive to spice, use caution.
- Cayenne pepper: Cayenne pepper packs a lot of heat and spice, if you are looking for something less spicy, opt to use chili powder, or omit the spice altogether.
- Salt and black pepper: To taste
Instant Pot Cooking Directions
- First turn your Instant Pot on to the sauté function and then brown the ground turkey meat until it is no longer pink. Drain any grease that remains.
- Add the onions and garlic to the cooked ground turkey and then cook until softened.
- Next, mix in cumin and cayenne pepper. Stir in chipotle peppers* and the adobo sauce, black beans, crushed tomatoes, sweet potatoes and chicken stock. Mix well, scraping the bottom of the pot, until the rest of the ingredients are combined.
- Lock the Instant Pot lid into place and turn the pressure valve to the sealing position. Set the cooking time on high pressure for 10 minutes using the manual setting.
- When the pressure cook time has finished, release the pressure using the quick release method.
- Take the lid off and switch your Instant Pot back to sauté.
- Remove the chipotle peppers and add in your bell peppers and celery, and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the celery is cooked and soft.
- Turn off your Instant Pot and serve!
- Top with your favorite toppings like cheese, fresh cilantro, avocado, sour cream, green onions or a few tortilla chips.
Recipe Tips
- The Instant Pot will function differently at higher altitudes. If you’re struggling with cook times or recipes not coming out properly, you can read more about high altitude Instant Pot cook time adjustments here.
- *For a less spicy chili, add in just the adobo sauce and not any of the chipotle peppers.
- Store this chili in an airtight container. I prefer to have a few individual serving size containers in the freezer and then pop it into the microwave for a quick and healthy meal prep lunch!
- You can easily modify this to be a vegetarian sweet potato chili recipe. Leave out the ground turkey, add an additional can of beans for extra protein, and swap out the chicken stock for vegetable broth. Be sure to recalculate your healthy eating plan points if you make this a vegetarian sweet potato chili.
Healthy Eating Plans
21 Day Fix
Our 21 Day Fix Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili is the perfect amount of healthy food full of flavor.
1 serving counts as 1 yellow container, 3/4 red container, 1/2 green container
You can find the Weight Watchers Sweet Potato Chili recipe here.
More healthy Instant Pot recipes
- Healthy Tuscan Chicken Pasta
- Healthy Stuffed Pepper Soup
- Instant Pot Pad Thai
- Perfect Instant Pot Turkey Breast
- Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas
Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili
Equipment
- Instant Pot 6 qt
- Kitchen Knife
- Cutting Board
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- ½ onion chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 1 can black beans drained
- ½ cup tomato crushed
- 1 sweet potato peeled and chopped
- 2 cups chicken broth Low Sodium
- 1 cup bell pepper
- 1 cup celery stalks chopped
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot on to the sauté mode and brown the ground turkey. Drain any grease that remains. 1 pound ground turkey
- Add in the garlic and onions and cook until softened. 1 tbsp garlic, 1/2 onion
- Next, mix in cumin and cayenne pepper. Stir in chipotle peppers & adobo sauce, black beans, crushed tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and chicken stock. Mix well until everything is combined. 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 chipotle peppers, 1 can black beans, 1/2 cup tomato, 1 sweet potato, 2 cups chicken broth
- Lock the Instant Pot lid into place and turn the pressure valve to sealing. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes using the manual setting.
- When the cook time has finished, release the pressure using the quick release method.
- Take off the lid and switch your Instant Pot back to sauté.
- Remove the chipotle peppers and add in your bell peppers and celery, and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the celery is cooked and soft. 1 cup bell pepper, 1 cup celery stalks
- Turn off your Instant Pot and serve!
- Top with cheese, cilantro, and avocado.
Video
Notes
- The Instant Pot will function differently at higher altitudes. If you’re struggling with cook times or recipes not coming out properly, you can read more about high altitude Instant Pot cook time adjustments here.
- *For a less spicy chili, add in just the adobo sauce and not any of the chipotle peppers.
- Store this chili in an airtight container. I prefer to have a few individual serving size containers in the freezer and then pop it into the microwave for a quick and healthy meal prep lunch!
- You can easily modify this to be a vegetarian sweet potato chili recipe. Leave out the ground turkey, add an additional can of beans for extra protein, and swap out the chicken stock for vegetable broth. Be sure to recalculate your healthy eating plan points if you make this a vegetarian sweet potato chili.
Nutrition
Make This Recipe?
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To leave out the turkey for vegetarian children, what could I substitute?
I’m sorry but I don’t really know! Maybe tofu?
This says 4 servings, but how much is a serving? I doubled this and didn’t want to divide into 8 containers…
Hey Kate!
Because of the size of your vegetables, the serving size will be a little different for everyone–I’d definitely recommend dividing it up if you’re using 21DF counts :)
I love instant pot recipes, they make dinner such a breeze. Funny thing is I love sweet potato and my husband loves chili (but not so much sweet potato), let’s see if I can convince him to make this for dinner one night ;)
It’s so delicious! Maybe if he cuts them small he won’t mind them in the chili?
I don’t like sweet potatoes and I LOVE this! Just mush the potatoes after cooked. I also tone down the heat a lot!!!
I am still learning how to use my pressure cooker so your recipe is really helpful. Thank you :-)
This is a great recipe! I’ve had to eliminate the cayenne pepper and take out one chipoltle pepper for my wussy taste buds, but it’s still delicious! I’ve made it countless times and enjoy freezing single-serving portions for later. It makes for an easy lunch when I pop it back in the refrigerator to thaw the day before. Thanks for posting!
Could you upload traditional nutritional values? Sodium, calories, protein, etc
I’m just learning how to cook and I’m still scared of our instapot. Do you have directions for regular stove or crock pot?
How much is1 serving, based on your qty’s? 2/3 cup?
I don’t know off the top of my head–maybe 2/3C-1C?
FYI, the video tells you to remove the chipotle peppers after pressure cooking, but the instructions don’t…and we followed the instructions the first time and needed an oral fire extinguisher.
Really delicious otherwise!
Oh no, I just cut up the pepper really finely and it’s cooking now!! I’ll have to have lots of sour cream ready.
only one potatoe? also do you put in the sauce the adobe sauce? and then take out the pepper
?
Yes, one potato :) And yes I put in sauce and peppers, unless you’d like it less spicy–then just add the sauce.
First time instapoter here. Great recipie and instructions. It was a little too spicey for me so next time I’ll exclude the peppers and/or cut down on the cayenne. Will definitely make again!
Tried this last night and it was amazing! Thanks so much for a different version of chili!! Yum
I love your recipes! I am one of the rare few that doesn’t have an instant pot. Could I make this on stove or crock pot? Thanks for sharing your creations with us!
Thank you, Liz! For the stovetop, I’d follow this:
1. Brown the ground turkey on the stove in a pot, then add garlic and onions and diced sweet potatoes (I’d dice them a little smaller than what my pics show so they cook a little faster).
2. Add spices, peppers, black beans, tomatoes, and chicken stock.
3. Simmer in a pot for 30-45 minutes on low, checking for the sweet potatoes to be cooked–that’s what will tell you the chili is ready :)
4. Add bell peppers and celery right at the end and let them sit in the pot for 5 minutes or so.
Enjoy!
This recipe is awesome and very delicious. Try it because it is so easy and delicious that you will be missing out if you don’t. 5-star recipe!